By Leilanie G. Adriano
Staff reporter
For a self-made farmer-millionaire like Romeo Ganiron, a national outstanding rice farmer from Brgy. San Mateo here, his face lights up every time he goes to the farm, feeding his native chickens, pigs, goats, African hito and tilapia while he also harvests assorted fruits and vegetables such as watermelon, tissue-cultured bananas, lettuce, tomatoes, pepper, squash and eggplant among other edible vines, flowering plants and mahogany trees that surround his 1.76-hectare farm estate.
While he is also engaged in mushroom culture and vermiculture, Mr. Ganiron attests that farmers can do so much if they are open to change, follow the right mix of technology and work hard for it.
His son, John Lei, 27, a professional engineer also joined him in farming as the latter is also engaged in hydroponics, a method of growing plants using mineral nutrient solutions the father and son co-produce and experiment.
The Ganiron family along with other farmers here are happy of the latest farming development in Batac. A trip at the largest open public market of Batac City shows farmers’ abundance, where traders from neighboring provinces including Metro Manila directly transact with them.
As a priority program of Batac since it became a city, farmers get the most out of their produce as the city government allocated at least Php 1 million each for the city’s 43 villages.
This paved the way for the remarkable transformation of rural barangays in the form of concrete farm-to-market roads, improvement of agricultural infrastructure, and better facilities.